Life After iPadOS 26

November 23, 2025·1 hr 16 min·5 clips

David Sparks uses a shark-and-tuna experiment to explain why iPad power users gave up on the platform for years.

The calendar sneaks up first. Stephen and David open with end-of-year housekeeping, a Notion database detour, and David giving himself permission to rearrange his app setup again. Then the iPad takes over. The episode lands on a plain, useful question: after these iPad changes, does the iPad still have to apologize for not being a Mac? Full screen gets more respect than usual, and fairly so. One app at a time still works for plenty of people, especially anyone who gets uneasy when the interface starts acting clever. Stage Manager does not get waved away either. For listeners who like grouped windows and a more focused work surface, it still has a place. The interesting part is the middle. Regular windowing, full screen apps, Stage Manager, and Slide Over now live next to each other instead of pretending there has to be one official answer. Slide Over coming back feels like good news. David is a little bummed that it only handles one app at a time, but he also gets why that limit keeps the whole thing understandable. Simplicity gets room to breathe. A parent or grandparent can use Mail, FaceTime, Safari, and Notes without needing a rescue call about why something got stuck on the side. Power users get more space too. If Notes, Safari, and Mail all belong in the same working session, the iPad now has more ways to make that feel normal. The praise stays measured. They sound happy with what the iPad gains here, but they keep checking every feature against how it might feel in ordinary hands. The Mac question hangs around near the end. For someone with a desktop machine like a Mac Studio, this version of the iPad could make a travel Mac feel less necessary. That is the useful tension. The iPad is not sold as the laptop for everyone. It is a machine with several sane modes for several kinds of people, which feels very MPU. Pick the mode that keeps the work moving and does not make the interface another job.

As heard by us

A grounded iPadOS 26 conversation about windowing, full-screen simplicity, and whether an iPad can stand in for a travel Mac.

Life After iPadOS 26 treats Apple's iPad rethink as a practical test: what happens when full-screen apps, windowed mode, Stage Manager, and Slide Over all coexist? Stephen Hackett and David Sparks keep circling back to use, not theory.

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Why you'd press play

Your iPad just got Mac-style window controls. Whether that finally makes it your only computer is the question.

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